Vernon, My computer, which suddenly died a couple of months ago, has come back to life and I have a pua photo for you. Actually, I have a number of pua photos for you and I will post more if this post is successful. Can you tell me where this unusual pua is from and anything about the motifs? It looks like there has been a lot of new material while I was gone and it is great to be back! Best regards to all, MAC

Vernon, My computer, which suddenly died a couple of months ago, has come back to life and I have a pua photo for you. Actually, I have a number of pua photos for you and I will post more if this post is successful. Can you tell me where this unusual pua is from and anything about the motifs? It looks like there has been a lot of new material while I was gone and it is great to be back! Best regards to all, MAC

Hello MAC

Nice to hear from you again. Sorry that your pc gave up the ghost. Resurrections are always good

I love your pua. It's very pretty. From the photos you attached, these are my preliminary observations:

1. I would hazard a guess and place provenance in the Julau, which is midway between the Saribas and the Ulu Ai. Hence, the 'schizophrenic' styles apparent in the patterning.

2. Fine commercial yarn for the warp which is dyed in a deep maroon engkudu red and commercial dyed threads for the selvedges, specifically a chilli red and a light sky blue.

3. The main pattern is an old one, resembling the deer guardian spirit. Guardian spirits are very much part of Iban cosmology. Warriors and weavers were known to have personal guardian spirits who assisted them in their acts of bravery. (Weavers also engaged in 'warfare', except a spiritual one, while warriors engaged in physical aggression.)

4. It's probably about a hundred years old, judging from the quality of the fabric, dye and colour use, and weaving style.

Robert, Thank you for generously posting a photo of your pua with the Nabau motif. I had been wanting to ask Vernon about that motif two months ago when my pc crashed. At that time no pua with the Nabau motif had been posted. I now finally have a photo of my Pua Nabau which I would like to share. I collected this piece in 1980 at the last Iban longhouse up the Balleh river. It is all handspun and has all natural colors with the exception of the bundles of continuous, supplementary weft threads which are woven into both ends of the two main panels. It is the largest pua I have ever seen. It is made up of four panels, the two main panels with the Nabau motifs and two narrow side panels with the vertical stripes. It measures 155X255cen. and is a heavyweight at 1.85kg, more than four times the 400 grams of the pua I posted on Monday! I wonder if Vernon would be so kind as to tell us about the motifs between the river serpents and whether the Nabau motif is used in the Saribas or other areas besides the Kapit and Balleh river systems. Any other info or comments would also be most welcome. Thanks in advance MAC Photo credits: Isamu Takei

Attachments:

File comment: colors are richer and deeper than those that appear on my pc._mg_0179_127.jpg [ 198.3 KiB | Viewed 14220 times ]

The photo of the first pua you posted isn't very clear when I zoom in as it's not high resolution, and so it's difficult to tell what exactly the pattern is. I say 'resembling' the deer pattern because the pattern itself is not the deer pattern but I can clearly see horns, which almost always mean the horns of a deer. So is it the deer pattern or not? Technically, it is not. Which begs the question: what horns? Deer horns but on a body that does not look remotely like the deer pattern. Only the weaver herself would know for sure what she wove.

It is an old pattern because I have seen this pattern before in the Sarawak Museum collection, and the blanket which has this pattern looked very old.

Having said all that, the deer pattern is one of the most common and innocuous patterns in Iban textile pattern taxonomy. It is the pattern a beginner would weave, as deers are harmless and benign creatures which protect, and never harm.

I hesitate to call all snake-like patterns NABAU. Nabau is a very specific creature - a mythical water serpent who is a goddess of great wonder and mystique and immensely powerful. I would equate her to Hera (the estranged and jealous wife of Zeus the Greek god) in power, strength and characteristic. She is aggressive, moody, highly volatile and prone to outbursts.

Most snake-like patterns are not the nabau but rather another species of snake. In fact, the nabau is very rare. How I wish dealers and misinformed writers on the subject would at least do their research before calling all snake-like patterns nabau.

There are various types of snake patterns:

1. Nabau (mythical water serpent, the most poisonous) - only to be woven by a supreme master weaver when commanded by the goddess herself, and the blanket must be flanked with either the white or yellow selvedge, which makes the NABAU pattern extremely rare.

3. Sawa (Python) - an experienced weaver would brave the wrestle with the python and its mate or young.

4. Kendawang (Viper) - most weavers 'play' with the viper and add it to their selvedges and side vertical borders.

What you have, MAC, is the Sawa Beranak, or Python and Child. A mother python curls protectively around its young; a pictorial allegory of the python guardian spirit guarding a warrior.

In between the python are various 'food' offerings to appease the spirit of the python. The 'food' could be anything, from human flesh to lesser spiritual beings - only the weaver would have known what kind of 'food' she wove.

Yes, snake patterns are found in the Saribas too. The snake pattern is pretty common and universal to all Iban as the snake features prominently in our cosmology and pantheon.

Attachments:

File comment: The Nabau, a Saribas version. Notice its open mouth devouring its prey, and its curled tail. Notice also the seven rivers and two mountains which it crosses. The Nabau is always depicted alone, never with a mate or a young. She is a vain, jealous goddess.nabau.JPG [ 151.16 KiB | Viewed 14182 times ]

I am new to this forum, and probably should have posted a reply rather than starting a new topic, as I did. Please look for it. It is about a cloth that seems similar to the one you uploaded, isi.jpg and I would like some information on it. Can I ask you to look for the new topic? http://www.tribaltextiles.info/communit ... php?t=2329

Hi Mac - I was catching up on some postings and came across your beautiful "Nabau" pua from the Baleh river. Great work. I can add an even larger one I obtained several years ago. It measures 115" x 61" or about 292x154 cm. So longer and about the same width as yours. The motif - Nabau and his son the crocodile Ribai - is the same as carved on many doors so I believe it connotes protection. And judging by the doors, I think I have mine posted "upside down".

These are great pieces and I have come to really like great Baleh area pua. Do you have more you can post?

MAC wrote:

Robert, Thank you for generously posting a photo of your pua with the Nabau motif. I had been wanting to ask Vernon about that motif two months ago when my pc crashed. At that time no pua with the Nabau motif had been posted. I now finally have a photo of my Pua Nabau which I would like to share. I collected this piece in 1980 at the last Iban longhouse up the Balleh river. It is all handspun and has all natural colors with the exception of the bundles of continuous, supplementary weft threads which are woven into both ends of the two main panels. It is the largest pua I have ever seen. It is made up of four panels, the two main panels with the Nabau motifs and two narrow side panels with the vertical stripes. It measures 155X255cen. and is a heavyweight at 1.85kg, more than four times the 400 grams of the pua I posted on Monday! I wonder if Vernon would be so kind as to tell us about the motifs between the river serpents and whether the Nabau motif is used in the Saribas or other areas besides the Kapit and Balleh river systems. Any other info or comments would also be most welcome. Thanks in advance MAC Photo credits: Isamu Takei

Thanks for the kind comments MAC. I'm afraid that the pilih article, like the sungkit article are both hanging fire as I try to locate good pieces to supplement what I have in my collection. But I am slowly making progress.

I think you and others should write articles on your adventures and experiences collecting in the field. ^_^.

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